Methods, apparatus and computer program products for testing a voice over Internet protocol communication system

ABSTRACT

Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are provided for testing a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication system. A VoIP test phone call is generated through an Internet communication link to a VoIP service provider for a called telephone number. Success of the VoIP test phone call is determined. The success of the VoIP test phone call may be determined based on whether it is established with communication equipment at the called telephone number within a threshold time, based on whether it is established within a threshold number of attempts, and/or based on a measured quality of service in the VoIP test phone call when it is established. Further VoIP test phone calls to test the VoIP communication system can be scheduled.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the field of telephony, andmore particularly to apparatus, methods, and computer program productsfor testing Voice Over Internet Protocol communication systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The Internet has become a mainstream network for communicating not justdata, such as email and pictures, but also for providing real-timebi-directional voice communications. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)is an industry standard that has evolved to enable users to place phonecalls through the Internet, instead of through the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN). A conventional phone or other ConsumerPremises Equipment (CPE) may now be connected to the Internet using aninterface device that converts analog phone signals to digital signalsthat can be communicated through the Internet. A phone call may therebybe communicated through the Internet to a VoIP provider, who convertsthe call back to an analog signal and places the call through the PSTNthat is local to the called phone. A user can thereby dial a telephonenumber in a conventional manner and have the call routed through theInternet, instead of through the PSTN.

The availability of the PSTN for a user may be tested by determiningwhether a dial tone is received from the PSTN. However, in a VoIP systemthe dial tone can be generated by the CPE itself or by an interfacedevice that connects the CPE to the VoIP system. Accordingly, a VoIPsystem may need to be tested differently than the PSTN system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Various embodiments of the present invention provide methods, apparatus,and computer program products for testing a VoIP communication system. AVoIP test phone call is generated through an Internet communication linkto a VoIP service provider for a called telephone number. Success of theVoIP test phone call is determined. In some embodiments of the presentinvention, the success of the call may be determined based on whether itis established with communication equipment at the called telephonenumber within a threshold time, based on whether it is establishedwithin a threshold number of attempts, and/or based on a measuredquality of service when the call is established. A notice may begenerated that indicates a result of the determination of success of thecall.

In some further embodiments of the present invention, the time of dayand/or day of week when the call is generated may be used to determinethe threshold time and/or threshold number of attempts that are allowedbefore the call is determined to have failed. The quality of service ofan established VoIP test phone call may be determined based on a timedelay in communication with the called communication equipment and/orbased on quality of communication signal from the called communicationequipment. The VoIP test phone calls may be scheduled at a periodicrate, based on the time of day and/or day of week, and/or based on thedetermined success of one or more previous VoIP test phone calls.

Accordingly, a VoIP communication system can be tested using a VoIP testphone call that is communicated to a VoIP service provider. Bydetermining the success of the phone call, the health and associatedoperational state of the VoIP communication system can be determined.For example, the phone call may test the collective ability of thecomponents in the VoIP communication system to establish an end-to-endconnection between the originating VoIP test apparatus and a calledcommunication device, and/or it may test the quality of the connectionif it is the connection is established. Although a VoIP communicationsystem may have an ability to test its individual components, the VoIPtest phone call may serve as an independent overall test of the VoIPcommunication system and may be uniquely able to test the end-to-endcall processing health of the system. Such independent testing mayinclude having the VoIP test apparatus be separate from and/orcontrolled independently of the VoIP communication system that istested.

Other systems, methods, and/or computer program products according toembodiments will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art uponreview of the following drawings and detailed description. It isintended that all such additional systems, methods, and/or computerprogram products be included within this description, be within thescope of the present invention, and be protected by the accompanyingclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features of the present invention will be more readily understoodfrom the following detailed description of specific embodiments thereofwhen read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)communication system that is tested by a VoIP test apparatus 110, andthat communicates with PSTN communication equipment via a PublicSwitched Telephone Network (PSTN) according to various embodiments ofthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a VoIP test apparatus according to variousembodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating operations for testing a VoIPcommunication system according to various embodiments of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 4 is another flow chart illustrating operations for testing a VoIPcommunication system according to various further embodiments of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments of theinvention are shown. However, this invention should not be construed aslimited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodimentsare provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, andwill fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in theart.

Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description. It willbe understood that, as used herein, the term “comprising” or “comprises”is open-ended, and includes one or more stated elements, steps and/orfunctions without precluding one or more unstated elements, steps and/orfunctions. As used herein the term “and/or” includes any and allcombinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

The present invention may be embodied as methods, apparatus, and/orcomputer program products. Accordingly, the present invention may beembodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, residentsoftware, micro-code, etc.). Furthermore, the present invention may takethe form of a computer program product on a computer-usable orcomputer-readable storage medium having computer-usable orcomputer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or inconnection with an instruction execution system. In the context of thisdocument, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be anymedium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport theprogram for use by or in connection with the instruction executionsystem, apparatus, or device.

The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example butnot limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagationmedium. More specific examples (a nonexhaustive list) of thecomputer-readable medium would include the following: an electricalconnection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). Note that thecomputer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper oranother suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as theprogram can be electronically captured, via, for instance, opticalscanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, orotherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then storedin a computer memory.

The present invention is described below with reference to blockdiagrams and/or operational illustrations of methods, apparatus, andcomputer program products according to embodiments of the invention. Itis to be understood that the functions/acts noted in the blocks mayoccur out of the order noted in the operational illustrations. Forexample, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executedsubstantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed inthe reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)communication system 100 that may be tested by a VoIP test apparatus 110according to various embodiments of the present invention. The exemplaryVoIP communication system 100 can communicate with PSTN communicationequipment 190 via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 180 and/orcan communicate with VoIP communication equipment 160. The VoIPcommunication system 100 enables phone calls to be initiated and/orreceived by the VoIP test apparatus 110, the VoIP communicationequipment 160, and/or the PSTN communication equipment 190 via theInternet 130, and such phone calls are referred to as VoIP phone calls.It is to be understood that the Internet 130 referred to herein may beany packet switched data network.

The VoIP communication system 100 may include local access internetproviders 120 and 150 that respectively connect the VoIP test apparatus110 and the VoIP communication equipment 160 with the Internet 130. TheVoIP communication system 100 also includes a VoIP service provider 140that is connected to the Internet 130 and is connected to the PSTN 180via a trunk gateway 170. The local access Internet providers 120 and/or150 may be, for example, a local telephone company that provides accessto the Internet 130 through a dial-up connection and/or through adigital subscriber line (DSL), a cable TV/communications company thatprovides a cable modem connection to the Internet 130, and/or a wirelessoperator that provides cellular data communications to the Internet 130over a wireless interface.

The VoIP communication equipment 160 may be a computer with amicrophone, speaker, and software that is configured to convert voiceto/from a digital format that can be routed through the Internet 130.Alternatively, the VoIP communication equipment 160 may be aconventional telephone that is connected through a VoIP interface devicethat is configured to convert voice to/from a digital format that can berouted through the Internet 130.

A subscriber may setup VoIP services by registering with the VoIPservice provider 140 and being assigned one or more VoIP telephonenumbers. The VoIP service provider 140 can then route phone callsfrom/to the VoIP telephone number(s) assigned to the subscriber based ona called telephone number (i.e., the telephone number to which the phonecall is directed). For example, the VoIP service provider 140 may routeand establish a phone call from the VoIP communication equipment 160and/or the VoIP test apparatus 110 through the respective local accessinternet provider 150 and 120 and the Internet 130, and through thetrunk gateway 170 and the PSTN 180 to the PSTN communication equipment190. The PSTN communication equipment 190 may be a conventional plainold telephone system (POTS) telephone.

The VoIP service provider 140 can include a VoIP feature server 142 anda soft switch 144. The VoIP feature server 142 may be, for example,BroadWorks platform by Broadsoft, and can include subscriber informationused for routing calls to/from subscribers. The soft switch 144 may be,for example, a Siemens hiQ 8000 Softswitch, and can provide a bridgebetween the Internet 130 and the trunk gateway 170 and/or equipment inthe PSTN 180. The VoIP feature server 142 and/or the soft switch 144 mayperform one or more of the operations for routing and establishing VoIPphone calls.

The VoIP test apparatus 110 tests the VoIP communication system 100 bygenerating VoIP test phone calls through an Internet communication linkin the VoIP communication system 100 and determining their success. Insome embodiments of the present invention, the VoIP test apparatus 110generates a VoIP test phone call to a called telephone number. The VoIPtest phone call can be communicated through the local access internetprovider 120 and the Internet 130 to the VoIP service provider 140. TheVoIP service provider 140 can route the VoIP test phone call based onthe called telephone number, which may be, for example, routed to theVoIP communication equipment 160 and/or the PSTN communication equipment190. The VoIP test apparatus 110 also determines the success of the VoIPtest phone call.

For example, the VoIP test phone call may be lost, corrupted, and/ordelayed more than a threshold time by the local access internet provider120, the Internet 130, the VoIP service provider 140, and/or othercommunication equipment needed to establish the phone call, such as thelocal access Internet provider 150, the trunk gateway 170 and/or thePSTN 180. The VoIP service provider 140 may not establish the phone calldue to, for example, a partial/complete failure and/or overload of theVoIP feature server 142 and/or the soft switch 144 and/or the underlyingrouters in the Internet network 130.

The VoIP test apparatus 110 may determine the success of the VoIP testphone call by determining whether the VoIP test phone call isestablished with the called communication equipment within a thresholdtime. A VoIP test phone call may be determined to have failed when itcannot be established with the called communication equipment within thethreshold time. The failure threshold time may be determined based onwhat time of day and/or day of week the VoIP test phone call isgenerated. Accordingly, the threshold time may be varied based on anexpected loading of the VoIP communication system 100. During highloading of the VoIP communication system 100, the threshold time may beincreased to allow for more time to establish a phone call before afailure is determined, and during low loading of the threshold time maybe decreased. Varying the threshold time in this manner may allow theVoIP test apparatus 110 to more accurately determine the success of aVoIP test phone call and, thereby, the health of the VoIP communicationsystem 100.

The VoIP test apparatus 110 may alternatively or additionally determinethe success of the VoIP test phone call by determining whether the VoIPtest phone call is established with the called communication equipmentwithin a threshold number of attempts to establish the call. Forexample, when a VoIP test phone call is not successfully established,the VoIP test apparatus 110 may reattempt to establish the call apredetermined number of times before determining that the VoIP testphone call has failed. The threshold number of attempts may bedetermined based on what time of day and/or day of week the VoIP testphone calls are generated.

The VoIP service provider 140 may generate a busy indication when, forexample, the called communication equipment is in use or otherwiseunavailable. The VoIP test apparatus 110 may determine that the VoIPtest phone call has failed based on receiving the busy indication fromthe VoIP service provider 140. For example, the called communicationequipment may be exclusively used for testing the VoIP communicationsystem 100, and therefore it should always be available to receive acall from the VoIP test apparatus 110. Accordingly, receipt of a busytone in response to a VoIP test phone call to such test communicationequipment can indicate a communication failure for which correctiveaction may need to be taken.

When a VoIP test phone call is established through the VoIP serviceprovider 140 with communication equipment at the called telephonenumber, the VoIP test apparatus 110 may also measure the quality of theestablished VoIP test phone call and determine the success of the phonecall based on the measured quality of service. The VoIP test apparatus110 may measure the quality of service of the phone call by measuringtime delay in communications with the called communication equipment.For example, the VoIP test apparatus 110 may transmit a signal to thecalled communication equipment which is repeated back to the VoIP testapparatus 110. The delay between transmission and receipt of the signalcan be measured to determine the communication delay. When thecommunication delay exceeds a threshold value, the VoIP test phone callmay be determined to have insufficient quality of service and to havefailed.

The VoIP test apparatus 110 may measure the quality of service of thephone call by measuring quality of communication signals from the calledcommunication equipment. For example, the called communication equipmentmay transmit a known tone or symbol sequence, or may repeat back atone/sequence received from the VoIP test apparatus 110. The VoIP testapparatus 110 may then compare the communication signals received fromthe called communication equipment to an expected or known signal (e.g.,a quality of service measurement signal) to measure the quality ofservice of the call. A VoIP test phone call may be determined to havefailed when insufficient quality of service is measured for the call.

The VoIP test apparatus 110 may select the called phone numbers so as totest various different portions of the VoIP communication system 100.For example, the VoIP test apparatus 110 may make VoIP test phone callsto the PSTN communication equipment 190 to test one communicationpathway and make other VoIP test phone calls to the VoIP communicationequipment 160 to test another communication pathway. Similarly, the VoIPtest apparatus 110 may generate phone calls to different regional areasto test different portions of the VoIP communication system 100. TheVoIP test apparatus 110 may also schedule the generation of the VoIPtest phone calls at a periodic rate, or may schedule the calls based onthe time of day and/or day of week to test the VoIP communication system100 differently during peak versus low call loading times. The VoIP testphone calls may be scheduled based on the determined success of one ormore previous VoIP test phone calls. For example, the VoIP test phonecalls may be made more or less frequently based on whether prior phonecalls appear to have failed.

The VoIP test apparatus 110 may generate a notice that can indicate thatone or more calls have failed and that corrective action may need to betaken. The notice may be communicated to analysis/repair personnel via,for example, email, pager message, computer generated voice annunciatedphone call, and/or wireless short message service. Depending on theseverity of the failure recognized, local and/or remote alarm noticescan be triggered. The notice may be generated based on the failure ofone or more VoIP test phone calls, and/or a filter may be applied to thefailures so that the notice is generated when a predeterminedrelationship is satisfied among the failed VoIP test phones calls and/orcompleted (non-failed) VoIP test phone calls. For example, completedcalls may be counted with weighted values relative to failed calls, andthe resulting counted values may be compared to a threshold value todetermine when to generate a failure notice.

Although FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary VoIP test apparatus 110, a VoIPcommunication system 100, a PSTN 180 and communication equipment, itwill be understood that the present invention is not limited to such aconfiguration, but is intended instead to encompass any configurationcapable of carrying out the operations described herein. For example,although only a single VoIP service provider 140, VoIP feature server142, soft switch 144, and trunk gateway 170 have been shown forillustration purposes, it will be understood that the VoIP communicationsystem 100 would generally route phone calls to/from thousands of VoIPsubscribers through numerous servers, switches, and trunk gateways.Moreover, it is to be understood that the VoIP test apparatus 110 and/orthe communication equipment 160 and 190 may communicate with a localaccess Internet provider and/or a VoIP service provider across awireless interface such as, for example, a cellular interface (e.g.,General Packet Radio System (GPRS), Enhanced Data Rates for GlobalEvolution (EDGE), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)), awireless local area network interface (e.g., WLAN, IEEE 802.11), aBluetooth interface, another RF communication interface, and/or anoptical interface.

With reference now to FIG. 2, a VoIP test apparatus 200 is shown thatmay be suitable for use as the VoIP test apparatus 110 of FIG. 1according to various embodiments of the present invention. The VoIP testapparatus 200 may include a controller 210 that communicates with amemory 220 and I/O data port(s) 230. The VoIP test apparatus 200 mayoptionally include (as illustrated by dashed lines) a display 240, inputdevice(s) 250 such as a keyboard or keypad, and a speaker 260 that alsocommunicate with the controller 210. The I/O data port 230 can be usedto transfer information between the VoIP test apparatus 200 and theInternet, such as through a telephone modem, a cable modem, a DSL modem,a wireless network, and/or another device for communicating data withthe Internet. These components may be conventional components such asthose used in many conventional data processing systems which may beconfigured to operate as described herein.

The controller 210 can be any commercially available or custommicroprocessor. The memory 220 is representative of the overallhierarchy of memory devices containing the software and data used toimplement the functionality of the VoIP test apparatus 200. The memory220 may include several categories of software and data used in the VoIPtest apparatus 200: an operating system; application programs;input/output (I/O) device drivers; and data. The application programsare illustrative of the programs that implement the various features ofthe VoIP test apparatus 200 and include at least one application whichsupports operations according to embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating operations for testing a VoIPcommunication system according to various embodiments of the presentinvention. At Block 300, a VoIP test phone call is generated. Thesuccess of the VoIP test phone call is determined at Block 310. At Block320, further VoIP test phone calls are scheduled. Further embodiments ofthese operations are now described with reference to FIG. 4.

At Block 400, a VoIP test phone call is generated. At Block 410, athreshold time is determined, which may be based on the time of dayand/or day of week in which the call is made. At Block 420, a decisionis made as to whether the call has been established with a calledcommunication device within the threshold time. When the decision atBlock 420 is that the call was not established, then further attemptsmay be made to establish the call. At Block 430 an attempt threshold isdetermined, and at Block 440 a decision is made as to whether the callis established with the called communication device within the number ofattempts defined by the attempt threshold. When the decision at Block440 is that the call was not established within the number of allowedattempts, a test failure notice is generated at Block 450. As describedabove, the test failure notice may be generated based on a definedrelationship between failed calls and/or completed calls, and the testfailure notice may be communicated to analysis/repair personnel via, forexample, email, pager message, computer generated voice annunciatedphone call, and/or wireless short message service. Another VoIP testphone call is scheduled at Block 480. As described above, VoIP testphone calls may be scheduled at a periodic rate, based on the time ofday and/or day of week, and/or based on the determined success of one ormore previous VoIP test phone calls.

When the determination at Block 420 or Block 440 is that the call hasbeen established, the Quality of Service of the call is measured atBlock 460 and a determination is made at Block 470 as to whether theQuality of Service is within a defined threshold. When the Quality ofService is within the threshold, the call is determined to havecompleted successfully, and another call is scheduled at Block 480. Whenthe Quality of Service is not within the threshold, the call isdetermined to have failed, and a test failure notice may be generated atBlock 450.

In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed typicalpreferred embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms areemployed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and notfor purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forthin the following claims.

1. A method of testing a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)communication system, the method comprising: generating a VoIP testphone call from a VoIP test apparatus through an Internet communicationlink to a VoIP service provider for a called telephone number; anddetermining success of the VoIP test phone call in the VoIP testapparatus.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a VoIP testphone call comprises communicating a VoIP test phone call through alocal access Internet provider to the VoIP service provider.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein: generating a VoIP test phone call comprisesattempting to establish a VoIP test phone call through the VoIP serviceprovider to the called telephone number; and determining success of theVoIP test phone call comprises determining whether the VoIP test phonecall is established with communication equipment at the called telephonenumber within a threshold time.
 4. The method of claim 4, furthercomprising determining the threshold time based on what time of dayand/or day of week the VoIP test phone call is generated.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein: generating a VoIP test phone call comprisesattempting to establish a VoIP test phone call through the VoIP serviceprovider to the called telephone number; and determining success of theVoIP test phone call comprises determining that the VoIP test phone callis not established with communication equipment at the called telephonenumber within a threshold number of attempts to establish the VoIP testphone call.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining thethreshold number of attempts based on what time of day and/or day ofweek VoIP test phone calls are generated.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein: generating a VoIP test phone call comprises attempting toestablish a VoIP test phone call through the VoIP service provider tothe called telephone number; and determining success of the VoIP testphone call comprises determining whether a busy indication is receivedfrom the VoIP service provider.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein:generating a VoIP test phone call comprises establishing a VoIP testphone call through the VoIP service provider with communicationequipment at the called telephone number; and determining success of theVoIP test phone call comprises measuring a quality of service in theestablished VoIP test phone call with the communication equipment. 9.The method of claim 8, wherein measuring a quality of service comprisesmeasuring time delay in communication with the communication equipment.10. The method of claim 8, wherein measuring a quality of servicecomprises measuring quality of communication signals from thecommunication equipment.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein measuring aquality of service comprises comparing a signal received from thecommunication equipment with a quality of service measurement signal.12. The method of claim 1, wherein scheduling the generation of a VoIPtest phone call comprises causing a VoIP test phone call to be generatedat a periodic rate.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein scheduling thegeneration of a VoIP test phone call is based on the determined successof at least one previous VoIP test phone call
 14. The method of claim 1,further comprising scheduling the generation of a VoIP test phone callbased on a time of day of the VoIP test phone call and/or a day of weekof the VoIP test phone call.
 15. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising generating a notice indicating a result of the determinationof success of the VoIP test phone call.
 16. A Voice Over InternetProtocol (VoIP) test apparatus comprising: a controller that isconfigured to generate a VoIP test phone call through an Internetcommunication link to a VoIP service provider for a called telephonenumber, and is configured to determine success of the VoIP test phonecall.
 17. The VoIP test apparatus of claim 16, wherein the controller isconfigured to schedule the generation of a VoIP test phone call.
 18. TheVoIP test apparatus of claim 17, wherein the controller is configured togenerate VoIP test phone calls based on time of day, day of week, and/ordetermined success of at least one previous VoIP test phone call. 19.The VoIP test apparatus of claim 17, wherein the controller isconfigured to generate VoIP test phone calls at a periodic rate.
 20. TheVoIP test apparatus of claim 16, wherein the controller is configured todetermine success of the VoIP test phone call based on whether the VoIPtest phone call is established with communication equipment at thecalled telephone number within a threshold time.
 21. The VoIP testapparatus of claim 16, wherein the controller is configured to determinesuccess of the VoIP test phone call based on whether the VoIP test phonecall is established with communication equipment at the called telephonenumber within a threshold number of attempts to establish the VoIP testphone call.
 22. The VoIP test apparatus of claim 16, wherein thecontroller is configured to determine success of the VoIP test phonecall based on whether a busy indication is received from the VoIPcommunication system.
 23. The VoIP test apparatus of claim 16, whereinthe controller is configured to measure a quality of service in a VoIPtest phone call established with communication equipment at the calledtelephone number, and is configured to determine success of the VoIPtest phone call based on the measured quality of service.
 24. The VoIPtest apparatus of claim 23, wherein the controller is configured tomeasure time delay in communication with the communication equipment,and is configured to determine success of the VoIP test phone call basedon the measured time delay.
 25. The VoIP test apparatus of claim 23,wherein the controller is configured to measure quality of communicationsignals from the communication equipment, and is configured to determinesuccess of the VoIP test phone call based on the measured quality. 26.The VoIP test apparatus of claim 23, wherein the controller isconfigured to compare a signal received from the communication equipmentwith a quality of service measurement signal, and is configured todetermine success of the VoIP test phone call based on the comparison.27. A computer program product for testing a Voice Over InternetProtocol (VoIP) communication system, the computer program productcomprising program code embodied in a computer-readable storage medium,the computer program code comprising: program code that is configured togenerate a VoIP test phone call through an Internet communication linkto a VoIP service provider for a called telephone number, and isconfigured to determine success of the VoIP test phone call.